saint agnes...pierrot.” the song “poor pierrot” was first performed in by peter chambers and...
TRANSCRIPT
Tw
enty
-th
ird
Su
nd
ay i
n O
rdin
ary
Tim
e S
ep
tem
be
r 8
, 2
019
Saint Agnes Catholic Church Arlington, Virginia
“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.”
T w e n t y - t h i r d S u n d a y i n O r d i n a r y T i m e
P a r i s h I n f o r m a t i o n
Parish Clergy Pastor: Rev. Frederick H. Edlefsen
Parochial Vicar: Rev. Scott Sina
In residence: Rev. Cedric M. Wilson, O.S.A.
In residence: Rev. Thomas Nguyen
Parish Office 1910 N. Randolph Street • Arlington, VA 22207-3046
Office Hours: M-F 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Phone: 703-525-1166 • Fax: 703-243-2840
Website: www.saintagnes.org
Parish Office Personnel
Inquiries: [email protected]
Business Manager: Meg McKnight ([email protected])
Director of Outreach and Communications: Suzanne Rogers
Facilities Manager: Katie Howell ([email protected])
Program Coordinator, Protection of Children: Joan Biehler
Coordinator of Adoration, Security & Logistics: Michael Sirotniak
Accounting: Lucy Estrada ([email protected])
Administrative Assistant: Ligia Santos ([email protected])
Ministry and Communications Assistant: Loree Lopez
Faith Formation Office Director (DFF): Marie Macnamara ([email protected])
Phone: 703-527-1129
Youth and Young Adult Ministry Youth and Young Adults Coordinator: Mackenzie Jardell
([email protected]) Phone: 703-527-1129
Liturgical Music Director, Saint Agnes Ensemble: Richard Lolich
School 2024 N. Randolph Street • Arlington, VA 22207-3031
Phone: 703-527-5423 • Fax 703-525-4689
Principal: Jennifer Kuzdzal ([email protected])
Assistant Principal: Ann Reid ([email protected])
Liturgy at Saint Agnes
Sunday Mass Saturday: 5:00 pm (Vigil)
Sunday: 7:30 am, 9:00 am, 10:30 am (High Mass), 12:00 pm
Holy Days As Announced
Weekday Mass Monday – Friday: 6:30 am, 9:00 am (Rosary after 9:00 am Mass)
Saturday: 7:30 am, 9:00 am (Rosary after 9:00 am Mass)
Monday: 7:00 pm (in Spanish)
Sacrament of Penance
Saturday: 8:00 am-9:00 am; 3:00 pm–4:00 pm or by appointment
This Week’s Mass Intentions
September Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
M 9 Saint Peter Claver, Priest
6:30 am Rev. Charles Smith (Melanie Rigney)
9:00 am Walter Brown (Irene Brown)
T 10 Twenty-Third Tuesday in OT
6:30 am Paul Kovacs (Cooleen Family)
9:00 am Symantha Milton (John Milton)
W 11 Twenty-Third Wednesday in OT
6:30 am Al Walters (Katy Norton)
9:00 am Francis Colangelo (Charlotte Markoe)
Th 12 The Most Holy Name of Mary
6:30 am Taras Drohobycky (Sloniewsky Family)
9:00 am Ruth Gibbons (Jane and Hank Goetzman)
F 13 Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop, Doctor of
the Church
6:30 am George Gerhard & sister (Sandra Gerhard)
9:00 am John T. Miller, Jr. (Rev. Frederick Edlefsen)
Sa 14 THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS
7:30 am St. John Paul, II (Laranjeira Family)
9:00 am John Albright (Margaret B. Kemp & Family)
Vigil Twenty-Fourth Sunday in OT
5:00 pm Viola George (Holly George)
Su 15 Twenty-Fourth Sunday in OT
7:30 am Manuel Santos (Santos Family)
9:00 am Lennye McCormick (Cacci Family)
10:30 am Pastor’s Intention: For All Parishioners
12:00 pm Nélida Félix & Gamal Gonzalez
(Lilia Irizarry) indicates person is deceased
Sunday Mass Readings:
Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time
WIS 9:13-18 b; PS 90:3-6, 12-17
PHLM 9-10, 12-17; LK 14:25-33
The Romantic Sensibility of Jerome Kern
Pastor’s Column — Rev. Frederick Edlefsen
Officially, my tenth birthday was in 1975. But I
turned ten in 1955, like some of my friends.
Others turned ten in 1970, despite all of us having
been born in 1965. Visiting my grandparents took
us to 1945, via a time machine known as a car. On
Mondays, I entered 1965 because my fifth grade
teacher was like that. However, third grade was in
1935 because of Mrs. Wright. She once asked for a
volunteer to stand up and sing a song before the
bell. Craig stood up. He sang “Loco-Motion” and
did a boogie. “Everybody's doing a brand-new dance,
now / Come on baby, do the loco-motion / I know you'll
get to like it if you give it a chance now / Come on baby,
do the loco-motion…” Craig was doing 1962-1972
all at once in 1973. Mrs. Wright told Craig to sit
down. That was 1935 putting the nix on 1962-1972.
For Western Civilization, the twentieth century
was not “a time.” It was a clash of sensibilities. A
time – a year or a decade – is not just a number on
the Gregorian calendar. It’s a sensibility.
Music forms and expresses sensibility. I grew up
in “1955,” musically. “1955” is a metaphor for a
popular musical sensibility from 1945-1965. It was
romantic, un-synthesized, whimsical and witty.
Dad started in radio in the late ‘50s, which may as
well have been the late ‘40s. He stayed in the
business until 1968 when, for radio, the ‘40s ended.
Music’s “feel” was changing not just with rock-n-
roll (which at first had a conservative sensibility)
but with the advent of the Moog synthesizer.
When dad left WNNJ, he inherited a library of
vinyls discarded by the station. Therefore, despite
the forthcoming 1970s, our home’s musical
atmosphere remained in “1955,” or pre-Moog. It
was a world of easy romantic sensibility, begotten
by the light opera of American musical theatre, an
offspring of 19th century romanticism. Among the
formateurs of this metaphorical “1955” was
composer Jerome Kern (1885-1945). Richard
Rodgers – of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame –
encountered Kern’s early music when he was
thirteen years old. Reflecting on Kern’s 1915-1920
compositions, Rodgers wrote this in his
autobiography: “It was his own – the first truly
American theatre music – and it pointed the way I
wanted to be led….The lyrics floated out with
clarity, and there was good humor as well as
sentiment in the use of instruments. Actually, I was
watching and listening to the beginning of a new
form of musical theatre in this country.”
A founding father of the American musical, Jerome
Kern composed 1300+ songs, mostly for stage,
though no one knows for sure how many. About
forty-six of his songs are now readily found in
print. Most were first sung on stage or screen.
He’s most famous for his scores in the 1927 musical
Show Boat. Like Taylor Port wine from Upstate
New York, made from Concord grapes, his works
are Americana in all its sweet and sentimental
beauty and shame, signified and sung in a powerful
ballad like “Ol’ Man River.” Kern wrote the music
and Oscar Hammerstein the lyrics. It’s been said
that Kern and Hammerstein were America’s
greatest composer team. Kern’s mystique has much
to do with what we don’t know. There are no
extant recordings of the original casts performing
his Broadway musicals. No one knows what Kern’s
songs sounded like in a New York stage debut.
Like medieval church music, much of what we
know about Kern comes from secondary and
popularized renditions. For example, Fred Astaire
performed Kern’s music not to mimic what he
heard on stage, but for the purposes of popular
song and dance. It was the budding age of radio,
screen and – not long in coming – television.
Listen to songs like “A Fine Romance,” “All the
Things You Are,” “The Way You Look Tonight,”
“Long Ago and Far Away,” “Smoke Gets in Your
Eyes,” “The Song is You” and “Look for the Silver
Lining.” These are Kern’s best-known pop-
masterpieces, all written for stage or film musicals.
They also hit the big bands. A favorite of mine is
Artie Shaw’s rendition of “All the Things You
Are.” Kern’s tunes formed pop-music’s sensibility
of the post World War II era (1945-1965), sung by
mostly female vocalists of big band genesis. To
name a few and a tune: Jo Stafford (“Long Ago an
Far Away”), Ella Fitzgerald (“A Fine Romance”),
and the jazzy Keely Smith (“All the Things You
Are”). Even in the mid-60s, the hip light-rock of
the smooth-and-goofy British Invasion duo, Chad
and Jeremy, could manage “The Way You Look
Tonight.” Margaret Whiting may be Kern’s most
privileged soloist. In her 1960 album, Margaret
Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook, she
elegantly recorded some of Kern’s extant
repertoire. Among its rare gems is the melancholic
romance, “Poor Pierrot,” lyricked by Otto Harbach.
It’s a takeoff on the animated tale in Charles-Emile
Renauld’s 1892 film (among the earliest), “Pauvre
Pierrot.” The song “Poor Pierrot” was first
performed in 1931 by Peter Chambers and Lucette
Valsey in the allegedly “under-appreciated and
undeservedly obscure” play The Cat and the Fiddle.
George Byron recorded it in 1957. But Whiting put
it out there, even for today’s age of Apple Music.
“Poor Pierrot loved his fair Pierrette. Golden the glow of
the happy hour when they met....What heaven they knew
only lovers may know….How should he know that a girl
may vow then forget… What hell rages in one’s heart
none may know….” And then, there’s “Bill” – a song
written in 1917 for the musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! –
which was composed by Kern and lyricked by
English humorist, P. G. Wodehouse: “Oh, I can't
explain / It's surely not his brain / That makes me
thrill / I love him / Because he's... I don't know / Because
he's just my Bill.” That’s a poetic joke. Put it to
Kern’s music, it magically becomes romance.
G. K. Chesterton said, “A madman is not someone
who has lost his reason but someone who has lost
everything but his reason.” A maddened world is a
Twenty-third Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Pastor’s Column
Continued
world of “reasons” without cultivated sensibilities.
Sanity is a sentiment before it’s a thought. It can’t
be explained. It’s cultivated by human affection,
nature, music and – most importantly – by God’s
grace. Sensibility starts in childhood and grows
within like a vine – often unawares – through
perilous paths in adolescence and adulthood and
into maturity. Noble and romantic sentiments in
music powerfully form sensibility. They’re prelude
to sentiments needed to confront life’s hard knocks:
duty, weakness, death, tragedy, grief, loneliness,
sorrow, penance, purification, failure, hope and
suffering for love’s sake. The sentiments of
romantic music have effects that transcend boy-
meets-girl romance. Nonetheless, romantic music
is prelude to romantic feelings that are most natural
to youth and that, in a way, never leave us. Falling
in love is a milestone in sensibility’s growth.
Here’s a lost secret of Western Civilization:
romance thrives in chastity. Unchastity disorients
romantic experience, though not irredeemably.
Catholic teaching on chastity is romance’s greatest
guardian. That said, romance (like romanticism)
involves a naïve confidence or idealism – an
unguarded confidence – that “love” can make
everything right, forever. The fact that this feeling
is bound to be disappointed, in one way or another,
is part of the experience. Boy-girl romance, and its
subsequent pain, plays on throughout life, forming
sensibilities about life and death, right and wrong,
joy and grief, basic courtesy, society, and
transcendent truths. Romance is fertile soil for
Christian hope – if it can forgive wrongs and
withstand temptations to bitterness or resentment.
Music like Kern’s nourishes sensibility, tames the
heart, and forms a “sense of proportion” as no
schooling can ever do. It chastens, but gently.
Contrast this to the aggressive agitation of turning
on the Moog and upping the voltage, per the late
’60 and beyond. In Kern’s sensibility, there’s
neither the agitation nor the aggression of dis-tonic
electric “music,” which may not be music,
etymologically speaking. “Music” means “silence,”
or “out of the silence” – like romance – as in the
words “mute” or “mystery.” The late schoolmaster,
John Senior, said, “Music is the voice of silence.”
Plato said as much. A steady diet of aggressive
“music” eclipses romantic sensibility – and the
longing for it – that’s otherwise natural to youth.
As innocence is essential to childhood, romance
and romanticism are essential to adolescence and
young adulthood. In the ‘80s, I recall having this
thought about synthesized pop music: “I don’t feel
that way.” Feelings cultivated in youth play like
background music throughout life. Romantic
feelings play like a voice of conscience, guarding
against hardness and cynicism, keeping adults
from becoming controllers and manipulators.
Romance – when purified of possessiveness and
envy – blossoms into empathy. Human experience,
in all its joyous and tragic richness, is sanctified
when we delve into what the Song of Songs
romantically calls the “wine cellar of love” (Songs
2:4).
Kern’s music is not in league with great Western
classics, any more than Taylor Port from Upstate
New York is in league with Taylor Fladgate from
Portugal. But it’s an offspring. “Great” music
evokes transcendent sensibilities. “Good” music
evokes common sensibilities. The “great” and the
“good” are integral and feed on each other. Kern’s
easy-to-digest songs connect with simple and
ordinary experiences, like young man-woman
romance. They tame the heart. They soften, not
harden. Grace and virtue can grow in this soil.
“Other seeds fell into the good soil…” (Mark 4:8). The
wordless beauty of Kern’s music transforms absurd
lyrics, like Italian opera transforms absurd plots.
“Long ago and far away / I dreamed a dream one day /
And now that dream is here beside me / Long the skies
were overcast / But now the clouds have passed…”
George Gershwin wrote that. Read in a poetry
recital, it’ll be laughed off stage. Sung to Kern’s
music, it’s elegantly romantic. It evokes, for simple
folk, a sense of life’s vast expanse and hope, like a
reflection on the grace of Baptism. Romantic hopes
are never fulfilled in time. They are fulfilled by
grace – in the “wine cellar of love” – beyond death
and time, “with the choicest gifts of the ancient
mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting
hills” (Deuteronomy 33:15). That’s a vow that shall
not be forgotten.
Schedule:
• Session 1: September 22, 2019 • Session 2: October 6, 2019 • Session 3: October 20, 2019 • Session 4: November 3, 2019 • Session 5: November 17, 2019 • Session 6: December 8, 2019
Candidates will receive the sacraments at the Easter Vigil at
St. Agnes on April 11, 2020
• Session 7: January 5, 2020 • Session 8: January 26, 2020 • Session 9: February 9, 2020 • Session 10: February 23, 2020 • Session 11: March 1, 2020 • Session 12: March 15, 2020 • Session 13: March 29, 2020
All sessions will be held in Conference Room B
in the Parish Center, 4:00-5:30pm
“The grace of the Sacraments nourishes in us a strong and joyful faith, a faith that knows how to stand in wonder before the ‘marvels’ of God and how to
resist the idols of the world. That is why it is important to take Communion, it is important that children be baptized early, that they be confirmed, because the Sacraments are the presence of Jesus Christ in us, a presence that helps us.” | Pope Francis |
For questions or to enroll, please email Kathryn Brown at: [email protected]
Spark is a Sacrament preparation program for 9th – 12th graders who have not yet received one or more of the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation). The program will consist of thirteen sessions to prepare the candidates to receive their remaining Sacraments of Initiation.
SparkSacrament Prep
VIRTUS trained volunteer assistant needed to share class time attendance. Please contact Kathy Brown if interested.
PICNIC
Please email Nick Beirne at operations@columbusclubevents .com or St. Agnes KofC representative Jim Holland at [email protected] to volunteer for set up, grilling, serving, assisting with relay and water games, and clean up.
OUR ANNUAL ST. AGNES PARISH
Burgers, hot dogs, Logan’s sausages and all the fixin’s will be served!
We’ll also have baked beans, homemade potato salad and
coleslaw and an ice cream truck and a beer truck. All are welcome!
Sides & Desserts Needed
If your last name begins with: A-L, please bring a side to share
M-Z, please bring a dessert to share
Volunteers
Needed
Bocce Ball
Relay Games
Face Painting
Bounce Houses
Sunday, September 15, 2019
This year’s picnic is in honor of the late Owen Beirne, Jr. who organized the Annual Parish Picnic for many years. Thank you to Nick Beirne, his son, and the Knights of Columbus Edward Douglas White
Council 2473 for hosting the picnic. Thank you to Boy Scout Troop 111 for volunteering support.
1 - 4:30 p.m. Knights of Columbus, Columbus Club of Arlington
5115 Little Falls Rd., Arlington, VA 22207
Fun for All Ages!
New This Year!
Visit Welcome Row with
displays representing an
array of Parish Ministries
and Parish Registration.
If you are interested in participating or volunteering
with the Nursery, please contact Lindsay O'Connell at
[email protected]. Volunteers must become
Child Protection compliant.
Youth Ministry Kickoff All 9th - 12th graders are invited to kick off the new
school year with food, fun, and friends this Sunday,
September 8th, from 6 – 8 p.m. in the gym! For more
information, please contact Mackenzie Jardell at
St. Agnes Parish Picnic
Our annual St. Agnes Picnic will take place next
Sunday, September 15, from 1—4:30 p.m., at the
Knights of Columbus, 5115 Little Falls Road,
Arlington, VA. 22207. Hope you can join us!
New Director of Music
We welcome our new Director of
Music, Katrina Keat, who will be
joining us next week! Katrina is from
Greenville, South Carolina. From a
young age, Katrina enjoyed singing
in church choirs and playing the
piano. She completed her Bachelor's
of Arts at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS, in
music and Political Science. She also studied organ
and participated in campus music ministry. Upon
graduating from Benedictine, Katrina moved to
Corpus Christi, TX, and became the Director of Music
at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. She specialized
in bringing large works of music back to the liturgy,
which also inspired her to pursue a master's degree in
conducting. Katrina graduated from The University
of Notre Dame in 2019 with her Masters in Sacred
Music, and is very excited to be a part of the Saint
Agnes community!
Mass for Jubilarians
Celebrating a Silver or Golden Wedding
Anniversary this Year? Were you married in 1969 or
1994? Then join Bishop Burbidge for the 2019 Mass for
Jubilarians on Sunday, October 13th, at 2:30 p.m. at
the Cathedral of St. Thomas More. Contact the parish
office to register no later than September 30th. For
more information, visit www.arlingtondiocese.org/
MJM.
PA
RIS
H L
IFE
Free FORMED Subscription
Check out FORMED.org! Parishioners
register with our parish code: f1a3f2.
St. Agnes is on
Facebook! Share the love: Like us on Facebook
www.facebook.com/saintagneschurch/.
MyParishApp Text App to 88202 to download
our free parish app.
Monthly eNewsletter Get it all in one place! Sign up at
saintagnes.org before our next issue.
Be the first to find out all of our current
activities, news and articles from the
pastor, and service opportunities.
Landscaping Help Needed!
If you have a green thumb, or would like
to develop one, the St. Agnes Landscape
Committee is looking for volunteers and
would like to hear from you! You can
set your own schedule, weekdays or
weekends, and work on your own or
alongside another volunteer committee
member. Contact Jean Shirhall for more
information at [email protected].
Interested in Becoming
Catholic? If you or someone you know is
interested in joining the Catholic
Church, the Rite of Christian Initiation
for Adults begins on Monday,
September 16. Call Marie Macnamara
in our Faith Formation Office for more
information at 703-527-1129.
St. Agnes Nursery The St. Agnes Nursery will be available
next Sunday, September 15th, during
the 9:00 a.m. Mass for 1-5 year olds, and
available the first and third Sundays of
each month during the 9:00 a.m. Mass.
Weekly Prayer Intentions:
For those who are sick in our midst:
Samantha Brown, Olivia Egge, Katylee
McInerney, Steve Ponticello, Rosemary Shimer,
George Baker, and the residents of Cherrydale
Health and Rehabilitation.
To add a name, or if a name may be removed because
the person is no longer ill (Deo gratias!), please contact the
Parish Office at 703-525-1166. Names of the sick are listed for
approximately four weeks unless we are notified otherwise.
Saint Agnes Essentials:
Infant/Child Baptism:
Baptisms are celebrated the first and third
Sundays of each month, after the Noon Mass.
Contact the Parish Office to register at 703-525-
1166 or [email protected].
Marriage Preparation:
Call the Parish Office for Pre-Cana at least seven
months prior to your wedding.
Anointing of the Sick:
Call the Parish Office to request Anointing of the
Sick. Anyone with a serious illness should
request this sacrament before being admitted to
the hospital.
Homebound Visitation:
Contact [email protected] or call the
Parish Office at 703-525-1166.
How to become Catholic:
Interested in joining the Catholic Church or want
to learn more? Contact Marie Macnamara in the
Faith Formation office at 703-527-1129 or a priest
for more information. Rite of Christian Initiation
of Adults (RCIA) classes are held on Mondays at
7:30 p.m.
Holy Orders/Consecrated Life:
Is the Lord calling you? For information about
priesthood, the permanent diaconate, or the
consecrated life, contact a priest or the Diocesan
Vocations Office at 703-841-2514.
Registration/Change of Address:
Registration cards are in the racks at main
entrances of the church, the Parish Office, or on
our website. Return them to the Parish Office, or
email them to [email protected].
Adoration Chapel “Come to Me, all you who labor and are
burdened, and I will give you rest" (MT 11: 28).
Jesus Christ waits for you in the most Holy
Eucharist. Permanent and substitute adorers are
needed daily between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. to restore
perpetual adoration in the Adoration Chapel at
St. Agnes. To make a commitment, please e-mail
Michael Sirotniak at [email protected].
Events
Look for more events coming this fall!
Events include: Restaurant Night Out, game nights,
Theology on Tap, and service opportunities.
For more information contact Mackenzie Jardell
Mark your calendars for Back to School Night. Back to School Night for
grades 6-8 will be held on September 11 and for grades 1-5 on September 12.
A few openings are available in the PreK3s.
For more information, contact the school office at 703-527-5423.
Saint Agnes School
Youth Ministry (9th - 12th Grades)
Young Adults (Ages 21-35)
St. Agnes School is a Catholic
community centered on the teachings
of Jesus Christ and strengthened by the
partnership between parents, who are the
primary educators of our students, and
our dedicated teaching staff.
We believe in the mission to educate
our students so that they become loving
Christians, inspired learners, outstanding
achievers, natural communicators, and
strong servants of God.
Looking to get involved? Young Adult Volunteers
needed for 2019-2020 Youth Group. If interested,
please send email to [email protected].
Picture (left):
7th graders and Kindergarten
prayer partners walk together
to Mass.
Stewardship Report Stewardship: Parish Support - - 01
Sunday Collection (in pew & via mail) $ 12,257
Faith Direct (electronic collection) estimated $ 12,338
Total Offertory for Week $ 24,595
Poor Box $ 166
Offertory Budget (FY 19-20) $ 1,680,000
Offertory Budget (through 9/1/19) $ 279,314
Offertory Actual (through 9/1/19) $ 236,819
Brother Dennis and Associates Mary Mother of God Mission Society:
Under Stalin, all Catholic churches were
confiscated and many were then put to
the most degrading uses imaginable. In 1991, the
Soviet Union ceased to exist, leaving Russia and 15
other countries as independent nations.
That year, a young Soviet naval officer from Kiev
converted to Roman Catholicism after he read
restricted religious literature as part of his political
indoctrination course to become a Communist
political officer. He was sent to Vladivostok, in the
far southeast of Russia, where he placed ads in
local newspapers searching for other Roman
Catholics to establish a Catholic community and to
seek a priest to reopen the parish.
Later that same year, two priests from the Midwest
entered Russia illegally and arrived in Vladivostok
to help re-establish the Church in eastern Russia,
celebrating Mass on the steps of the former
Vladivostok cathedral (then still a state building).
Since then—and with the help of the Mary Mother
of God Mission Society—they have founded or re-
founded 11 Catholic parishes, have developed
numerous charitable initiatives, and have created a
variety of catechetical programs. To learn more,
visit vladmission.org.
This week, Brother Dennis and Associates are
sending $1,800 to the Mary Mother of God Mission
Society to ensure the continued support of the
Church in Eastern Russia.